3 Feb 2022 to Guardian Newspaper Group
For the last two weeks, Wed 27th Jan and today 3rd Feb 2002, both the Northwich and Knutsford Guardian have published 6 pages of detailed info from HM Government on the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill submitted to Parliament on 25th January 2022. And yet none of this has made the headlines or even a minor column tucked away in the inside pages of your papers.
HS2 is a very important local topic and many people are still not aware that our patch of Cheshire is Slowly Sleep Walking into an HS2 Nightmare without any benefits from HS2.
HS2 will have a very negative impact on Northwich, Knutsford and surrounding communities.
For example, the 6 pages of detailed government info in your papers show in my parish of Lach Dennis and Lostock Green that there are 19 footpaths to be temporary and/or permanently stopped or diverted.
- How do we get out of Lostock Green to the shops, doctors, schools etc. etc….. or even to catch a slow speed train to Manchester, yet alone get to a HS2 station sometime in the future? All communities along the route will also have their unfair share of HS2 impacts on their travel connectivity, cohesion, environments.
- The A556/Northwich Bypass is going to be rerouted from Broken Cross Roundabout to Lostock Triangle so that HS2 can be built along the existing A556 route. So what’s happening to the diverted traffic, which of course includes all the HGVs going to and from the Lostock Waste Incinerator and Lostock Waste Biodigester?
- And vitally there is a deadline to be met: a closing date of 31st March 2022, for comments from anyone on the effects of HS2 on our environments and communities. How to do this is set out in the HS2 Phase 2b Jan 2022 Environmental Statement Consultation. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/hs2-phase-2b-crewe-manchester-environmental-statement-consultation
- How many people know that this HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Consultation even exists?
- How many people know that there’s still an opportunity to influence and mitigate the impact of this enormous, time consuming, carbon consuming, rail construction project on their lives, environments and communities for years to come?
Come on Northwich and Knutsford Guardians, as local newspapers spread the news about this massive rail project – At least publish a map of where HS2 goes through our patch!
Rosalind Todhunter
Lostock Green
Follow these links to view the route
https://www.hs2.org.uk/what-is-hs2/phase-2b-crewe-to-manchester/
Environmental Statement Navigator
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1ee72a6a6889415dbbc23a32f78a4ddd
